NUSA DUA, Indonesia:JackMa, executive chairman of China’s Alibaba Group Holding, said on Oct 13 that he is discussing with Indonesia’s government the possibility of opening an institute to train tech entrepreneurs in the South-East Asian country.

Ma, who already advises the government on e-commerce, said he had talks with the government about opening a Jack Ma Institute of Entrepreneurs, but no specific details had been agreed.

“We’re giving a lot of opportunities for young Indonesian people to learn,” Ma told reporters after meeting Indonesian ministers on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings being hosted by Indonesia.

The co-founder of Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce firm, said it is important for Indonesia to invest in human capital because “only when people improve, when people’s minds change, when people’s skills improve, then we can enter the digital period”.

Indonesia has a shortage of trained engineers in technology and Jack Ma said Alibaba will train hundreds of developers and engineers on cloud computing to help make Indonesian businesses more digital-savvy.

The country is a key market for Alibaba, whose cloud computing arm Alibaba Cloud launched a data centre in Indonesia in March.

Ma said his company would continue to invest “not only on e-commerce, but also cloud computing, logistics and … infrastructure” in Indonesia, while also helping local businesses to grow.

Indonesian Communications Minister Rudiantara said in September that Indonesia was partnering with Ma to look into ways to harness Alibaba’s businesses to increase its exports, particularly to China.

McKinsey estimated in a report released on Aug 30 that the value of Indonesia’s e-commerce market will surge to at least US$55bil (RM228.68bil) by 2022 from US$8bil (RM33.26bil) in 2017.

On Oct 12, Ma told a panel discussion at the IMF and World Bank meetings that “the Internet is designed for developing countries”, with “great opportunities in Africa” also. – Reuters